let there be light!

the lightbulb fizzed on my Daylight magnifying lamp on Friday morning
I wasn’t able to draw or stitch for three days & was in a snit all weekend
Old Man Crow will be so happy when he gets back from the pub this evening I’m grinning from ear to ear since the postman arrived with my lightbulb and it works!
earlier today Madeleine and I met this gentle man with a beautiful blue and gold macaw in Sydney Park

Magic Days!

firelight

firelight
it’s New Year’s Eve here in the Big Smoke
with bushfires raging right across this ancient land
a day for clearing out the old energy and getting to know my new iMac
may 2020 be a year of clear vision for our beautiful broken world

hopeful scrying at the x-roads

evening light
scrying with the magical X-roads Cloth by Grace Forrest Maestas of Windthread
Eucalyptus operculums, passionfruit vine tendril, poppy seedpod, grape vine tendril, Ariel whisker & claw sheath, elephant paperclip, African porcupine quills, Ginkgo leaf, stone from the Ganges, shell fragments, winged seed, Imagine Peace pin by Liz Akert, cracked glass pyramid, Fishbones by Johanna Flanagan aka The Pale Rook, heart shaped Banksia leaf, stone from the Kalang River, basket woven with Bangalow palm inflorescence by Margaret Olah
doing the happy dance up at Artsite for Old Man Crow who is looking forward to getting the kidney stone blasted to smithereens and the irritating stent removed tomorrow at RPA!

PS Friday evening, the kidney stone and stent are gone, after a gentle stroll home from the hospital he’s resting before some fortifying red beans and rice for dinner with fresh mangoes and yogurt for dessert
Magic Days
thanks for all the good wishes

Transformation in the Dark of the Moon

Old Man Crow gave me this beautiful Third Eye by Penel Bigg of Fire Bird Beads for xmas
which I broke on New Year’s Eve
and mended with a bat claw, eel skin leather, waxed black linen & blue upholstery threads
2 lampworked beads by Kathy Dorfer, lapis lazuli and blue glass beads
over the summer break I collated the online catalogue for the dream, there’s 172 pages with a double page spread for each contribution, here’s a screenshot of what the info and title pages look like so far
will photograph all the pennants and talismans with a good digital SLR on a tripod in the white space of Artsite Galleries on January 15th & 16th (this will also give me a trial run for getting the dream armature with the blue branch carefully out the front door) the gallery is just a two minute walk away so Old Man Crow and I will carry it up there and pray for a sunny day!
Yesterday was hot with a light breeze, perfect for airing the tulle train of the old wedding dress
and started working out how to attach the train to the dream, it will need to be discreetly detachable for ease of transport
the lace heart by Sharon Peoples makes a beautiful bridge between the armature and the cloud of tulle
just loosely knotted in place for now but it’s getting there
Today I will start wiring Reaching for the Stars to hold up the cloud and rope lines for the pennants
here’s the rough sketches from July 2017
September 2017
March 2018
and now it’s just making itself
Magic Days!

White Light for a dear friend doing the waltz with Jimmy Dancer

a dear friend rang yesterday with the news that she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer back in October, she’s had 2 months of weekly doses of chemo with another 2 months of chemo once every 3 weeks until early February when her breast will be removed surgically followed by the radiant rays.
I cut out a tiny heart from the piece of the 1895 pink kid leather Jane Milliken sent with her talisman stitched with her fine madder and indigo dyed thread and two budgerigar feathers
then filled this little sea urchin pod I stitched earlier in the year with a pink galah feather, a sprig of lavender, Cecil Brunner rosebud, Honesty seed and a Cat’s Eye shell for her to hold onto and ordered a copy of You Can Conquer Cancer by Ian Gawler, a spirit wise book that helped me 14 years ago with getting through the treatment for throat cancer.
White Light and Lots of Love
Be Strong my beautiful inspiring friend, we need you on the planet!
namaste

Buzzing with the Bees from Martine, her pennant is here safe & sound!

Oh Hooray, the white light that everyone sent to help Martine’s pennant get here worked!
with 11 bees a-buzzing
summer flowers blooming
in sheer delight
the beautiful textured silk on the other side
love Martine’s letter written on the paper pattern for the backing silk
such a bee-uti-full meeting with the gathering
there is such gentle magic and peace buzzing in Martine’s pennant for the bees
you can see more of this deep hearted magic over on her blog and facebook
namaste
Magic Days!

White Light is needed to guide Martine’s pennant all the way home!

This beautiful pennant from Martine Bos needs White Light to help guide it’s way home, it was mailed from The Netherlands on October 26th and needs our help to get here!
the photo is from Martine of Venus blessing her pennant buzzing with love
Marti just sent this prayer
“Mo, the photo above is my way of sending white light for Martine’s pennant: Upon reading your post re Martine’s “bee”-utiful pennant, I collected some objects that are important to me, laid them out, lit my beeswax candle and asked blessings that her pennant arrive safely and soon. (I know the sinking feeling from having my own pennant go missing and into quarantine for over two weeks when it arrived in Australia so my heart is with Martine.) The candle rests upon a white and green dyed cloth, an attempt at color blocking derived from Chinese pistache trees in front of my home. Green has always been my go to color for hope and for peace. A peace leaf, made by Australian artist and sculptor Barry Smith, is the grounding element for Martine’s pennant to find its way to the Gathering. The rainbow Kokopelli is one of my favorite Southwestern symbols and although considered to be a trickster, a spirit of music, a fertility god, I am invoking the fertility aspect so that the search for Martine’s pennant be a fruitful one. Lastly, the blue and green mandalas are from an old Celtic Mandala calendar that has always held deep spiritual meaning for me as Ireland is the landscape of my heart. Together, may all of these objects shed a trail of light for Martine’s special and lovely pennant.”
namaste

Lotus light

Lotus light (Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens) Mo17
Lotus light (detail) Mo17

morning light

morning light on the studio bench
letting the Book of Honesty pages rest, making samples for the binding & covers

Wheel of Life

“The Letter W”  by Mo 2008 from An illuminated Book of Cats
Jude Hill is Sun Storming today, resonating with her “on going theme for holding center and vibrating outward.”

“Leo” by Mo 1999 for the Celestial Times Zodiac Series
“Something Else” Mo12 from “The illustrated Lyrics of Old Man Crow”
Preprandial Siesta by Mo 2003 “Cooking With Cats”
Myall Lakes (house boat dreaming) Mo 1996
a favourite old drawing combining text and image
houseboat on Myall Lakes 1996
the memory of a beautiful moment out of time, early morning we are floating on the lake in the yellow dinghy witnessing blue damselflies hatching, drying their wings and then taking off for their first flight…